Cleaning of hydrophobic soils such as grease and oil soils continues to be a challenge for detergent formulators, especially in regions where hand washing and/or colder water conditions exist. Many consumers in these regions may use hand washing process in addition to automating washing machines. The washing process in these regions will comprise the steps of soaking, pre-washing, pre-treating, and re-using of wash water. Often, wash water in the hand wash process is cold and may be high in impurities, such as hardness, concentration of transition metals and amounts of soil and particulates. All of these factors result in what is referred to as “stressed wash conditions”, primarily in the amount of the soil, hardness, and particulates in the re-used wash water. These wash conditions are different from typical granular laundry detergents similar to those often found in the United States or the European Union via primary use of automatic washing machines.
Therefore, a problem associated with stressed wash conditions is the decreased level of hydrophobic soil cleaning due to the high soil, hardness and colder wash temperatures. Another problem associated with stressed wash conditions is the resulting graying of the white and light fabric items in the wash due to the deposition of the soil and particulates. Both problems are even more accentuated in the re-used wash water.
Known polymers for improved clay and hydrophilic soil cleaning and prevention of graying white and light fabric items in the wash include those polymers described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,288; U.S. Pat. No. 6,444,633; U.S. Pat. No. 6,579,839 and WO 01/05874. It is also known that some polymers can improve cleaning of other soils, such as those discussed in WO 01/79408 A1.
Polyol compounds such as sugar based materials are sustainable and readily available raw materials that lend themselves to be broadly tuned to address specific formulability and performance requirements. Specific performance requirements include providing cleaning of hydrophobic stains (grease, oil) under hand washing conditions having high soil and high hardness. Other performance requirements include use in automatic and hand-dishwashing compositions; surface cleaning compositions, such as floor cleaners, wood, ceramic tile, linoleum, cleaners; personal care compositions, such as shampoos, hair conditioners, soaps, body washes; and pet cleaning compositions.
Formulability of some of the current commercial polymers, which provide cleaning of grease and oil soils, into granular and liquid laundry detergents, hard surface cleaners, dish cleaning compositions and personal care compositions continues to challenge detergent formulators.